I found it, unlike its near ally, a remarkably shy species; so much so, that I frequently had much difficulty in getting within gun-shot of it. When perched on the trees it is a most showy bird, its white cheek-feathers and contrasted tints of colouring rendering it very conspicuous.
I did not succeed in finding its nest, a circumstance I much regret; for although it is probable that in the colour of its eggs and its mode of nidification it generally resembles the M. Novæ-Hollandiæ, there will doubtless be found as great a specific difference in these respects as is to be observed in the markings of their plumage.
The sexes are alike in colour, but the female is somewhat the smaller. The white cheeks and the absence of white tips to the tail-feathers will at all times distinguish it from the M. Novæ-Hollandiæ.
Crown of the head, throat, and space round the eye black; an obscure band of white crosses the forehead and passes over each eye; a beautiful plume of hair-like white feathers spreads over the cheeks and ear-coverts; back dusky brown, striped longitudinally with black; under surface white, each feather having a central longitudinal mark of black; wings dark brown, the outer edge of all the primaries and secondaries wax-yellow; tail dark brown, the external edges margined with yellow; irides dark brown; feet and bill black.
The figures represent two males of the natural size, on a plant growing in the district of Illawarra, called Christmas by the settlers.
MELIPHAGA MYSTACALIS: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
MELIPHAGA MYSTACALIS, Gould.
Moustached Honey-eater.
Meliphaga mystacalis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 161.
Bȁn-dene, Aborigines of Swan River.